A Night of Theatre Elegance

All photos courtesy of Maria Vartanova.

Saturday night, September 13, 2025, saw the theatre transformed into a truly elegant venue for a celebratory event – the OLT Donor and Volunteer Appreciation Gala coupled with the presentation of this year’s esteemed Cornerstone inductees.

The invitees arrived dressed in elegant cocktail or theatre-inspired attire and everyone certainly looked marvelous. Hors d’oeuvres, sparkling wine and great conversation kicked off the evening.

We all then moved into the auditorium and the evening commenced with a toast and welcome address from our President Albert Lightstone. He thanked all our volunteers, donors and our sponsors: Tea & Toast, Kelly Funeral Homes and the City of Ottawa.

He took the time to single out two special donors in the audience Barbara and Bill Turner. They have given a truly remarkable monetary donation to the theatre, not only to support us financially but also to inspire others to contribute what they feel comfortable and capable of doing.

Board of Directors member Venetia Lawless gave out special recognition awards to two recipients – Michel Cormier and Ian Fraser – for their tremendous work and dedication in recent projects, most notably the closed captions and the Spektrix ticketing platform.

Volunteer Committee Chair Linda Webster presided over the Cornerstone award recipients’ announcements. The Cornerstone was established as part of our 100th anniversary celebrations to recognize and acknowledge the contribution made by select volunteers who have gone above and beyond to make the OLT the thriving community organization that it is today; they are the human cornerstones of the theatre.

This year’s recipients were:

You can read their bios in the Cornerstone section of our website.

To end the formal presentations, Season Planning Committee Chair Jane Morris unveiled the 2026 season to the oohs, ahhs and applause of the audience.

The party continued back in the upper lobby with more delicious food and entertainment by the wonderful local band The Reuben Kincaid Trio until the wee hours of the next morning.

We want to give a very special shout-out to Venetia Lawless and Chelsey Prince for initiating and organizing the Gala along with their team of Linda Webster, Barbara Merriam, Jane Morris, Lindsay Laviolette, Ian Gillies Nancy Hogan Susanna Doherty, Joan Marie and others from the SWAG who helped put this evening together with all of the food prep and the beautiful decorations. In addition, thank you to Michel Cormier and Patrice Arruda who were so helpful in organizing lighting and sound and the front of house team Sarah McKay, Mike Kelly and Maria Vartanova led by House Manager Jude McCormick.

Select photos included below. Click here to see the full photo album.